Everyone seemed to have an opinion on their 21-year age gap while they were dating.
And now, giving hers, Florence Pugh has addressed the public criticism she and ex-boyfriend Zach Braff endured during their three-year relationship in a wide-ranging interview with Vogue.
'We weren’t in anyone’s faces. It was just that people didn’t like it,' she said.
The actress, 27, first crossed paths with actor and filmmaker Zach, 47, through a mutual friend. They grew close after he cast her in his short film_, In the Time It Takes to Get There_, and were first spotted together publicly in 2019.
In August, Florence revealed they had gone their separate ways earlier in 2022, saying, 'We've been trying to do this separation without the world knowing, because it's been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on.'
She continued, 'We just felt something like this would really do us the benefit of not having millions of people telling us how happy they are that we're not together. So we've done that. I automatically get a lumpy throat when I talk about it.'
In her chat with Vogue, the Don't Worry Darling star labelled the breakup 'very new' and explained why her relationship with Zach didn't fit the mould for the tabloids.
'I think young relationships in Hollywood are so easily twisted because they add to the gossip sites,' she admitted, 'It’s exciting to watch. And I think I was in a relationship that didn’t do any of that.'
In March, film fans will see Florence at the heart of Zach's latest directorial work, The Good Person. It not only ticks off another leading role (this time alongside Morgan Freeman), but it also stands as her first stab at producing.
Previously praising her portrayal in the upcoming film, Zach said, 'I know that anything Florence does is incredible. People say she's maybe the best actress of her generation. I think she's one of the best actresses working. This performance she gives is unbelievable.'
In The Good Person, Florence plays Allison, a young woman whose life is turned upside down following a fatal car crash involving her soon-to-be sister-in-law. Using prescription pills and alcohol as a coping mechanism doesn't prove to be as effective as she hopes, but she later finds unexpected solace in her would-be-father-in-law Daniel (Morgan Freeman). As they unite in grief - with Daniel also tasked with raising his 18-year-old granddaughter - the pair learn that friendship and forgiveness can bloom in the most unlikely of places.